


that was the turning point that was one lonely night

by musicspeakstoo



Series: boy you was battle born [5]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Family Drama, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-21 21:21:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7405294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicspeakstoo/pseuds/musicspeakstoo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason's thing to do on bad nights is watch the feeds in the Cave, which only serves to make it worse. Tonight is no exception.</p>
            </blockquote>





	that was the turning point that was one lonely night

**Author's Note:**

> Part of an ongoing AU where Jason doesn't die in Ethiopia but Tim still becomes Robin. One day I'll post one of these things and it won't be at like one in the morning but today is not that day. Unbeta'd, so all mistakes are mine. Title is from Spaceman.

There’s a backdoor into Oracle’s systems that’ll tap you into the Cave’s security feeds, if you know what to look for and the planets are all aligned _and_ Babs isn’t in the mood/too busy to give you shit. Jason doesn’t use it often, only on really bad nights when the Joker’s laugh rings in his ear and he spends his patrol half-looking for a larger shadow next to his.

By comparison, tonight is not one of those nights, but Roy had been crashing on his couch before Mia showed up last night to drag his ass back to Star City and Jason’s just lonely. His patrol felt one person short, and it messed with Jason’s head. Combine that with feeling a little masochistic and the fact that Nightwing had been spotted in Gotham the other day and you have Jason sitting on his couch glued to his laptop.

He taps into the feed to see Dick and Tim sparring on the mats. Jason’s had a few opportunities to watch Tim fight, and he’s never forgotten the way Dick does, but watching them together is interesting. Dick is still as flexible and unnecessarily flashy as ever, and Tim is a textbook study of fighting form. Dick is all backflips and somersaults to dodge Tim’s punches and kicks. They spar like you do with someone you know well, when you’re familiar with how their body moves in a fight.

What strikes Jason the most, though, is how much fun they’re clearly having.

Neither of them are in uniform anymore, instead wearing sweatpants and undershirts, adding to the almost carefree atmosphere of their spar. He can clearly see the grin on Dick’s face, though he’s watching the wide view feed, and Tim is smiling, one Jason’s never seen before and it makes the kid look as young as he is. The audio in the feed kicks in just as Dick throws his head back and laughs. 

_Thanks, Babs_ , Jason thinks wryly.

Dick’s laugh has always been infectious, even when it was at Jason’s expense. Tim must agree because he laughs in response. Something he wasn’t sure the kid knew how to do. Dick pins Tim and says something too low for the cameras to pick up, but Jason switches to a closer up camera just in time to see Tim roll his eyes. Dick helps Tim up, ruffling his hair as he does so.

“Good spar, little brother,” he hears Dick say and Jason’s sharp inhale is completely out of his control.

Though he’ll never stop mocking Dick, and for them to ever get along even slightly would require an act of God, part of Jason really really wanted Dick to be his older brother. To teach him how to balance civilian and vigilante life, tell him the best tricks for sneaking food from underneath Alfred’s nose. Jason had had visions of brother bonding moments by way of ganging up on Bruce to get him to do something outside of the cowl. Unfortunately, those things were childish fantasies, except Jason swears the two of them got along at one point.

Jason had expected the hurt that would come with seeing them like that, but the jealousy knocks him off balance. He’s long since accepted the fact that people just plain like Dick better, Roy Harper notwithstanding. Dick is a more likeable guy, charming and funny—the man who made Robin what it is today, of course people like him more than they do brash and foul-mouthed Jason. 

It’s just a fact of life and Jason is almost over it.

Watching Dick with Tim is like a kick to the stomach and it only gets worse. The jealousy he feels isn’t entirely aimed at Tim, some of it is for Dick. Tim’s response to Dick’s words is the worst fucking thing Jason has ever seen. 

He looks at Dick like he’s the best thing, the _only_ thing. Like he’s every birthday and Christmas rolled into one and Jason doesn’t even know why he’s surprised. Once he’d gotten as used to the idea of a new Robin as he could possibly get, Jason had gone begging to Babs for info on the new kid and he’d learned all about Tim and how everything had been tied back to Dick.

Regardless, there’s something particularly painful about watching Tim light up under Dick’s fond and approving smile.

He and Tim have been getting along fairly well, though they haven’t hung out again since Tim crashed on his couch all those weeks ago, Jason having difficulty making plausible excuses to show up to see him like he’d threatened to. They’ve emailed once or twice, though, and Jason’s finally admitted to himself that he likes the kid, and if it just so happens that this friendship pisses off Bruce and Dick, well, he’s no saint.

He’d known, of course, that Tim and Dick got along, and Jason has no desire to be the kid’s brother, but. It hurts in a way that living on the streets and becoming a vigilante should have beaten out of him. Like everyone who was supposed to give a shit about him somehow missed the memo.

Onscreen, Dick pulls Tim into a noogie he half-heartedly tries to duck away from and says, “C’mon Timmy, let’s hit the showers and then we’ll go through some of the stuff I brought from my place, get you looking sharp for your first date with Ariana.”

Jason snorts, why the kid wants any part of Dick’s atrocious fashion sense, he doesn’t know. Hell, Jason would’ve leant the kid his leather jacket if he’d just asked. He would’ve teased the shit out of Tim first, but still. Jason’s almost in a good mood, just from that, but then Dick steers them toward the showers, giving his case a wide berth as he does so and suddenly Jason’s furious. 

Furious that Dick and Bruce go to all this trouble of immortalizing him, like he was some sort of martyr for the cause, and they won’t even fucking go near the case. Hell, the only people’s Jason’s ever seen near it are Alfred cleaning it and Tim the night they first met. Babs tells him that Bruce stares at it sometimes, but that doesn’t mean shit, Bruce likes to brood on his failures. Always has. It doesn’t mean that he misses Jason, or that he thinks about anything other than what a huge fuckup Jason is, all while idealizing the kid he used to be. What Bruce fails to understand is that kid is still there, the same anger is still there, it’s just now he’s allowed to do things his way.

He goes to shut his laptop down when something at the upper corner of the screen catches his eye. He waits, tense, and after a few moments, Bruce walks more into the frame. He’s half out of the suit, cape and cowl conspicuously absent, buried in whatever file he’s reading. Or maybe not, because suddenly there’s laughter coming from the area of the showers and Bruce looks up, turning into it like a flower seeking sunlight. He’s still in the upper part of the frame, so Jason can’t be sure of what the expression on his face is, but if he didn’t know better, he’d swear it was longing.

 _You and me both, Bruce_ Jason thinks, and it’s a weird enough thought that he shuts his laptop down and goes to bed. It stays with him, though, and he falls asleep thinking about almost-brothers and glass cases and other things he’s never examined too closely.

**Author's Note:**

> Funny, when I first started plotting this verse out, I was worried it wasn't angsty enough.


End file.
